I think having good reaction times can get you out of trouble in certain situations, but thinking ahead, having enough foresight to know what you and the car are going to do, allows you to avoid getting yourself in situations where you need quick reactions.— Bryan Herta, Going Faster - Master The Art of Race Driving

Archive for July, 2013

On reclaimed land in the vicinity of Changi is an area which hosts Singapore’s Aviation Airshow every 2 years.

In May this year, the area turned home to the Changi Karting Circuit; Singapore’s 2nd and newest karting track. At just under 1.1km in length with over 12 turns, the track is a different beast from Singapore’s other track; Kartright Speedway and provides residents in Singapore an opportunity to race at more than a single circuit throughout the year.

With its last community race at Malacca in 2012, the Karting Singapore community returned to the race track on the 13 July 2013. Not everyone who wanted to be there could attend as the Karting Singapore community had to postpone the original event date of 22 June due to the worst haze to affect Singapore in the last 16 years.

Fortunately, clear skies prevailed on event day and at 5.00pm with darkness fast approaching, the event began proper. After registration, participants were sent to the briefing room to sit for the safety video and the track briefing. The format for the day for everyone was a 10 minutes practice followed by 12 laps of racing around CKC’s full length track configuration.

The 32 that showed up were a diverse group of participants from all walks of life - but all were united in the interest of racing. In summary there were about 20 competing in the Under 70kg class and 12 competing in the Over 70kg class. Whilst over half had previously attended previous Karting Singapore events, we had a sizeable number of new members joining the community as well. After all the admin had been done, the participants took to the track for the real business of the day. In the first practice session, Riku Alatalo, one of the top sim racing drivers in the world, took pole with a 1.00.356 followed by a regular polesitter, Ron Tay on 1.00.501 and local motorsports writer, Jonathan Lim on 1.00.655. The karts were reassembled on to the grid and the field of 32 drivers were split into 2 segments of 16 names based on their fastest qualifying time.

Finals 2 saw an upset victory when Calum Kozma the race winner in 12.34.831 mins was given a 20 second penalty by CKC’s supervising race officials for a race position of 7th. Having finished less than a second behind Calum Kozma, the Winner of Consolation Finals 2 award went to Low Fai Ming.

Finals 1 saw the fastest 16 drivers in qualifying take to the grid. With 16 karts on the grid, there were battles all through the field with karts running 3-4 karts abreast on the rear straights and into the sharp hairpin. Even with the tight field, 6 drivers produced fastest laps under 1.01 minutes (Riku Alatalo 1.00138, Ron Tay 1.00.174, David Lau 1.00.374, Jonathan Lim 1.00.539, Kevin Pang 1.00.736 & Shawn Hahnmann 1.00.781). The win for the day belonged to Ron Tay who finished the race in 12.17.203 mins with Riku Alatalo finishing only 9 hundreds of a second behind. 3rd and 4th were equally hard fought with David Lau finishing 3 hundreds of a second ahead of Jonathan Lim. Shawn Hahnemann, the first of the Over 70kg class, Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Sim were the next few finishers in queue for the battle of 3rd place.

3 Years ago, i joined Karting Singapore for my 1st race at Kartright. Time flies and this time round, I have the chance to once again take part in a Rental Kart Race with my karting friends at the new Changi Karting Circuit. I think to most of us, it was not just a race but it was also a good catch up session for most us. There were a few new guys who were very quick and fast around the track too making my win this time to be a closed one. I enjoyed myself very much and I’m definitely looking forward to the next event. Thank you Mark and guys at Karting Singapore for everything.

Shawn Hahnmann, winner (Over 70kg)

A beautiful sport that gives u an adrenaline rush like no other.. and the thunderkart event gives u that adrenaline.. It’s thrilling, exciting n most importantly fun !!! Great big thanks to Mark Lange for making such a beautiful sport enjoyable but also dirt cheap for all to enjoy. In summary, Karting Singapore’s community day out at CKC was great fun and the track management went out of their way to make the event an enjoyable one for everyone.

With prizes given out to the podium winners at the end of the event, Karting Singapore’s Mark Lange also handed out the long overdue 2012 championship series awards to the following drivers:

Thunderkart 2012 Series (Clubman Under 70KG Class)

1st - Ron Tay
2nd - Kevin Pang
3rd - David Lau

Thunderkart 2012 Series (Clubman Over 70KG Class)

1st - Hamizan Ali
2nd - Mark Lange
3rd - Charles Theseira

Quotes from Winners:

Ron Tay, Series winner (Under 70kg)

I’m happy and thrilled to have won the 2012 Driver Series. Having joined Karting Singapore 3 years ago from being a newbie to a ’semi-amateur’ with the guidance of the other experience Karters. This win is considered as a motivation for me to going in Karting. This season proves to be challenging as 2 out of 4 races were held over at Malacca Track instead of our usual familiar Kartright. With the end of this season race, I’m already looking forward to next year race season with opportunity to maybe race in even more tracks. Thank u to Mark and all Mods in Karting Singapore for all the events that you all have organized.

Hamizan Ali, Series winner (Over 70kg)

“It’s nice to finally achieve a good overall result after 4 years of being in KartingSingapore. It has been exciting to have been able to race with familiar and new faces alike. I’m happy to have been a part of every race this year, despite the ultra-short sprint races @ KartRight That said, I have to admit that luck was on my side considerably more often this year compared to previous years. After all, it’s all rental karts so there’s always bound to be a time where each of us would occasionally draw a lemon kart. So getting a lemon kart less often this year definitely helped me in terms of championship points. I would like to thank Mark and the organising co for making KS events possible, managing the transport aspect (for overseas tracks) and of course, always trying to keep the costs down.”